Job Description
Head of Quality
Location: National*
Closing Date: 15th March 2026
Interviews: W/C 30th March 2026
Grade: 6
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary:
London: £75,674 - £85,257 (which may include an allowance up to £12,201)
National: £71,381 - £80,419 (which may include an allowance up to £12,319)
Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
Vacancy number: 15310
*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP
The Role
We’re recruiting for a Head of Quality here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative LAA Digital team.
This role aligns against Lead Test Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework
As a Head of Quality, you will provide organisational leadership to foster a cohesive quality strategy across the organisation. You will build capability across the profession and product teams, ensuring teams are equipped to support the strategic direction. You will provide guidance, coaching and mentorship to teams to adopt and embed modern quality practices to deliver the digital services that Legal Aid Providers, citizens and case workers use daily.
You will advocate for early, sustainable quality activities and a proactive, quality first, risk aware culture. Your role will be instrumental in influencing quality metrics, governance and continuous optimisation of strategies, test plans and methodologies.
This role requires a high level of strategic thinking, technical understanding, capability building and the ability to influence organisational change.
You will be responsible for the line management structure of other quality professionals within the organisation.
The Team
You will be part of a forward thinking and innovative community, working closely with the engineering community, product managers, user researchers, designers, business analysts, and delivery managers to champion quality and testing excellence.
We cultivate an inclusive, diverse, transparent and agile environment. We believe in building quality into our products, systems and services and that quality is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025
Key Responsibilities
As a Head of Quality you will;
Define and execute a long-term quality and testing strategy, ensuring alignment with business and user needs.
Work with the Head of Engineering to lead, guide, and influence testing and quality engineering practices across the organisation, ensuring scalable, sustainable, and robust methodologies are in place.
Drive the integration of quality practices at every stage of the software development lifecycle to embed a culture of built-in quality.
Promote the strategic use of automation, ensuring teams are equipped to implement effective, scalable automation frameworks that support efficient and repeatable testing.
Shape and refine testing design principles, governance, metrics, and reporting, ensuring insights are used to drive continuous improvement and informed decision-making.
Develop capability across the quality profession, mentoring and coaching teams, and supporting their professional growth.
Engage with cross-government communities to share knowledge, collaborate on best practices, and contribute to the broader testing strategy within the public sector.
Build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture within the testing profession, ensuring an environment that encourages learning, experimentation, and innovation.
Champion a quality-driven mindset, ensuring testing and quality are seen as shared responsibilities across teams.
Monitor emerging technologies, tools, and trends, ensuring that the organisation stays at the forefront of quality engineering innovation.
Oversee supplier and vendor relationships, ensuring third-party testing services align with organisational goals and quality standards.
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Benefits
37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow.
Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates).
25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the King’s birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT.
Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location).
Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
5 days volunteering paid leave.
Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.
Person Specification
Essential
Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects.
Expertise in applying and adapting testing methodologies across different development lifecycles, ensuring effective integration into Agile and DevOps environments.
Knowledge of testing tools and automation frameworks, using them to improve efficiency, mitigate risk, and enhance overall quality assurance.
Ability to use change management initiatives, enabling teams to adopt sustainable quality engineering practices without compromising productivity.
Experience in ensuring teams are set up to support quality needs and work to agreed standards
Building an inclusive, diverse testing culture, fostering an environment where innovation and collaboration thrive.
Ability to champion and advocate quality engineering both internally and externally, shaping best practice, while promoting innovation.
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.
Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
How to Apply
Candidates must submit a CV and a supporting statement with a maximum of 500 words, which describes how your skills and experience, meet the requirements set out in the below criteria:
Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects. (250 words)
Expertise in applying and adapting testing methodologies across different development lifecycles, ensuring effective integration into Agile and DevOps environments.
Application Guidance
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement
In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
Working together
Changing and improving
Leadership
Managing a quality service
Communicating and Influencing
A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview and presentation held via video conference.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on ‘Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects’ will be conducted before the sift.
Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Terms & Conditions
Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk
